Soros: Alien Warlord's Conquest (Scifi Alien - Human Military Romance) by Vi Voxley

chieftain was different, but looking at Turian's expression, Kat knew there would be no talking to that man. He looked positively ready to murder, but Soros hadn't backed away one step.
    The clan lord's presence crashed into her world. With the roar of fighter engines and the chattering comm link that Turian didn't bother to turn off… The solitude was over. Technology returned with full force to their chosen exile and they were no longer alone.
    It bothered Kat a bit how quickly she'd adopted the "we". She had to forcefully remind herself that it was Soros' fight, his problem. In fact, she was a prisoner who he kept in the middle of his personal battles.
    She should have hated him, but that was hardly the case. Kat didn't know what she thought anymore. With only a few days, she had broken her single cardinal rule – don't get attached.
    Too late now.
    She watched Turian slowly approach Soros. The way the clan lord behaved was meant to insist that Soros was his prisoner now, but the sliver of fear he couldn't completely hide said the opposite.
    "I knew I'd find you here," Turian said, stopping a few feet from Soros, who had yet to acknowledge his presence in any way. "You always loved these mountains. All the little exercises you had us do. I guess they finally paid off."
    He can't be more than a few years younger than Soros , Kat thought.
    "You credit me with way too much sentiment," Soros replied.
    "Do I?" Turian asked. "I don't think so."
    She noticed how he kept himself firmly away from Soros, despite trying to establish dominance. Always standing with his back to the cave’s doorway, ready to jump to cover if his old commander chose to attack him.
    "I think you care more than you admit. Isn't that the reason you still haven't gone to the traitor chieftain?" Turian went on.
    The clan lord probably thought it was nothing, but Kat didn't miss the moment Soros glanced her way when he was accused of caring. Her heart started beating faster, and she nearly dashed from her cover. Soros wasn't doing anything because she was there. If he attacked Turian and they backed into her, she might be killed.
    Kat realized even Soros could no longer tell where she was. The stone floor beneath her feet wasn't the forest where footsteps could give her away. The warrior didn't dare to do anything, because he couldn't be sure she had obeyed him and stayed in place.
    Ideas started rushing through her head the moment she realized everything Soros was doing was to protect her. She couldn't just stand there and be his weakness. If Turian figured out that he finally had his feared commander at his mercy… No, she couldn't let that happen.
    "I owe allegiance to no one," Soros told Turian. "I have no business with Nadar, or with you."
    "Doesn't the chieftain rule us all?" Turian asked with malice glinting in his eyes, making his opinion on the matter obvious.
    "Idiot," Soros said coldly. "Corgans can't be ruled, only led. Nadar knows that, even if you don't. I want nothing to do with either of you."
    "Shame," Turian spat, and now Kat was honestly afraid for Soros' life.
    The clan lord's eyes, furious before, were now glowing with a dark, unstoppable loathing.
    "You will have to deal with me . If you wanted to avoid that, you shouldn't have killed my nephew. And Tereck is only barely alive," he hissed. "They were no match for you, Soros, how –"
    Kat winced when Soros surged forward so fast that even Turian's eyes flew wide in surprise.
    "They were not," the warlord agreed, his deep voice carrying the weight of his fury. "And you sent them after me anyway. Did you really believe I would come along when I had already refused your offer? I have told you already that I will take no part in this. I will not be Nadar’s puppet, nor yours. Or did you expect me to show mercy to those boys?"
    Kat didn't see Turian's face very well, because Soros had moved in the way, but she did see the warrior stand straighter after a moment. He gave the clan lord such